Democrats vote against final version of Benghazi report

Unanimous Republican committee members overruled the four Dems who voted against publishing the report. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi voted to adopt and release the final version of their report Friday amid a battle with the White House over portions that remain classified.

Four of the committee's five Democrats voted against adopting the report, but were overruled by the unanimous vote of the panel's Republican members.

After a draft of the report was made public last week, Democrats attempted to downplay its findings by arguing the two-year probe had highlighted few new facts.

But the report issued a detailed and scathing indictment of the administration's handling of the September 2012 terror attack in Benghazi that claimed four American lives.

Sections of witness testimony and internal documents remain classified, although committee Chairman Trey Gowdy has pushed the White House to clear as much information as possible for release.

"We urge the Obama administration to clear for public release all of the supporting evidence and documents referenced in the more than 2,100 footnotes in the report, including all of the transcripts of the committee's witness interviews and all of the video footage from the drones operating over Benghazi during the attacks," the committee's Republican members said in a statement. "The administration should do this as fast as possible so the American people can see all of the evidence for themselves."

Committee Democrats said they had pushed to hold the vote in public but were overruled by the majority members.

"Republicans are using procedural rules to impose a gag order on us, although we understand they have already made inaccurate statements of their own about today's closed-door sessions," Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel's ranking Democrat, said in a statement Friday.

"There is no reason we could not have had a portion of this debate today in public, in full view of the press and the American people," he added.